Game 2 preview: Keeping Curry in check

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has a modest objective against Golden State tonight in Game 2.

“We’d like to figure out how to hold (Stephen) Curry under 40 (points),” he said. “I have like 10 phone calls out to people asking for suggestions. He’s unbelievable.”

If that’s the standard for victory, the Spurs might be all right.

Surely Curry cannot blister the Spurs again like he did in Game 1, when his 44 points — 22 in the third quarter alone — forced the Spurs to execute perhaps the most improbable comeback in NBA history to win 129-127 in double overtime.

Can he?

If this year’s postseason has shown us anything, it’s that Curry is capable of just about anything. But the Spurs believe — or at least hope — they might have come up with a strategy to at least slow him down, as they did in the fourth quarter and beyond on Monday.

With Kawhi Leonard doing most of the initial work, the Spurs held him to 5 for 13 shooting during that span. Granted, his heavy workload — Curry sat for just four seconds — and the fouling out of Klay Thompson aided the Spurs greatly. But they gladly took advantage of any edge they could find to nudge him out of video-game mode.

“I think we did a good job,” Leonard said. “Tried to force him to the basket a little bit. We just (had) a great team effort on him. We wanted to make him a driver, so we were really giving him a lane to go to the basket so help could come.”

Curry made a handful of difficult floaters and layups, but the Spurs will gladly take that over a barrage of morale-sapping 3-pointers like the one he unleashed in the third quarter of Game 1.

Speaking of morale, Golden State’s took a substantial hit as they became the first team in NBA history to lose a playoff game after leading by 16 with four minutes or fewer.

The collapse spoiled what had been an impressive all-around performance by the young Warriors, who controlled the paint while keeping the Spurs in check offensively.

“It’s easier said than done,” Thompson said, “but you have to forget about it or it’s going to dwell in the back of your mind. I’ll probably be thinking about it until game time. But once tipoff happens, it’s a whole new ballgame. It’s time for redemption. If we come out of here 1-1, that’s a win for us.”

From a technical standpoint, Warriors coach Mark Jackson lamented the mistakes that let the Spurs climb back in the game, including defensive breakdowns on Danny Green’s tying 3 late in regulation and Manu Ginobili’s last-second winner.

But, as ever, he presented a confident, fearless face to the media.

“All we do is concentrate on the facts,” Jackson said. “And the facts are, we were the better basketball team for the most part of that game. We did some things we have to do better. But you have to leave that game feeling good about where we are.”